Kopp Quotes

I've never began any important venture for which I felt adequate prepared ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Persistent inequality costs the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars a year, undermining our global competitiveness, our democracy, and our ideals as a nation. ~ Wendy Kopp

Tests that sugar-coat the truth only set up our kids to fail in worse ways down the road. ~ Wendy Kopp

Education is the gateway to the American Dream. But today our immigration laws make higher education - a virtual requirement for financial security - out of reach for more than one million undocumented students. ~ Wendy Kopp

While most would agree with Socrates that, "the unexamined life is not worth living," a lesser-known quote by Sheldon Kopp might be more important here: "The unlived life is not worth examining. ~ Meg Jay

When people think the issue can be solved, it becomes a moral imperative to be part of the solution. We can do a lot more within our school districts to recruit aggressively, select people according to high standards, invest in their training and development, and foster and reward their leadership. Once we invest more in attracting, developing and retaining teachers, potential recruits will begin to see it as a profession worth considering. ~ Wendy Kopp

The lack of diversity in higher education is a problem we as a country must tackle if we're going to live up to our promise. ~ Wendy Kopp

Love is more than simply being open to experiencing the anguish of another person's suffering. It is the willingness to live with the helpless knowing that we can do nothing to save the other from his pain. (23) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

I think people are attracted to teaching because they want to make a real impact. ~ Wendy Kopp

Our teachers are operating just as effective leaders in the business world do. They set a vision that most people think is crazy. They convince the kids why it's important to accomplish the goal. And they are totally relentless. ~ Wendy Kopp

Research in self-disclosure supports my own experience that the personal openness of the guru facilitates and invites the increased openness of the pilgrim. (24) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

I have long trusted dreams as prophetic visions. I do not mean that they foretell the future, only that they illuminate the present, when my eyes are closed, so that I may see clearly. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Research confirms that great teachers change lives. Students with one highly effective elementary school teacher are more likely to go to college, less likely to become pregnant as teens, and earn tens of thousands more over their lifetimes. ~ Wendy Kopp

As a country [USA], we can attract more talented people to teaching by raising awareness of educational inequity and getting the public to understand from individual classrooms, schools, and cities that this is an issue that can be solved. ~ Wendy Kopp

Teach For America would not be able to continue recruiting and developing an ever-more diverse and impactful group of corps members and alumni if the nation's leading colleges become even less diverse. ~ Wendy Kopp

Let the tech firms and consulting firms build your skills, but be sure to ask yourself, 'Am I maximizing my impact?' 'Am I living up to my values?' ~ Wendy Kopp

Sometimes life seems like a poorly designed cage within which man has been sentenced to be free. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

I myself was completely torn by the decision to start Teach For America. There was a voice in my head telling me not to do it - to take a more normal path. I did have one thing going for me, which was that I had been rejected from all the other jobs I'd applied to. ~ Wendy Kopp

People think of teachers who are born to teach, and you think of all these charismatic folks. Some of the most successful teachers are some of the least charismatic, interestingly. But they have a gift of figuring out what motivates people. ~ Wendy Kopp

Georges Kopp, on his periodical tours of inspection, was quite frank with us. 'This is not a war,' he used to say, 'it is a comic opera with an occasional death. ~ George Orwell

No man can be fully a man unless he comes to terms with the female double within him. So too, with women and their male shadows. Those who do not know their sexual counterparts are absurd caricatures of the identities to which they aspire. Not knowing the hidden other within themselves, they hate and distrust the opposite sex. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

As a senior at Princeton, I felt like the whole world was open to me. In our country, that's not a given. We aspire to be a place of equal opportunity, and yet where you're born determines your prospects. ~ Wendy Kopp

I think Teach for America has suffered from the fact that I did not teach, in a major way. I also think if I had taught, I wouldn't have started Teach for America. ~ Wendy Kopp

But after a while, she began to experience the new reality of each person as being as strong and as weak as anyone else. Slowly, she learned that each of us grown-ups has as much and as little power as the other, and that we had best learn to take care of ourselves.(83) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

To live without the creative potential of our own destructiveness is to be a cardboard angel. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Whenever we've seen the kids in the most disadvantaged context truly excel, always it's been in classrooms and in whole schools where there is a clear vision of where the kids have the potential to be. ~ Wendy Kopp

A core part of Teach For America's mission has always been affecting positive change in the traditional public school system. ~ Wendy Kopp

The limitations of federal laws are able to create real progress at the local level. Ultimately, to effect not just incremental progress but progress that is transformational for students, we need committed leadership - people who believe deeply that their students can achieve at the highest levels and who know how to create the conditions at the classroom, school and system level to give them the opportunities they deserve. ~ Wendy Kopp

In the long run, we will need many more African-American, Latino, and Native American leaders, and leaders from low-income communities, who can bring additional insight and a deeply grounded sense of urgency, and who are the most likely to inspire the necessary trust and engagement among students' parents and community leaders. ~ Wendy Kopp

And should I wear my mask too long, when I take it off and try to discard it, I may find that I have thrown my face away with it. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

We have found that the most successful teachers in low-income communities operate like successful leaders. They establish a vision of where their students will be performing at the end of the year that many believe to be unrealistic. ~ Wendy Kopp

So it is that there is nothing to be taught, but yet there is something to be learned. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Everything good is costly, and the development of the personality is one of the most costly of all things. It will cost you your innocence, your illusions, your certainty. (10) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Teach For America is working hard to be one significant source of the leadership we need. ~ Wendy Kopp

The therapist can interpret, advise, provide the emotional acceptance and support that nurtures personal growth, and above all, he can listen. I do not mean that he can simply hear the other, but that he will listen actively and purposefully, responding with the instrument of his trade, that is, with the personal vulnerability of his own trembling self. This listening is that which will facilitate the patient's telling of his tale, the telling that can set him free. (5) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

The continuing struggle was once described in the following metaphor by a patient who had successfully completed a long course of psychotherapy: 'I came to therapy hoping to receive butter for the bread of life. Instead, at the end, I emerged with a pail of sour milk, a churn, and instructions on how to use them.' (138) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

We are all born into families and cultures we didn't choose, given names we didn't pick, instructed in behaviour and values we might not have freely chosen, and too often we end up expected to live lives designed by others. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

I've heard a number of our alumni - people who are running schools and school systems - think a lot about different models for the teaching profession. ~ Wendy Kopp

Crises marked by anxiety, doubt, and despair have always been those periods of personal unrest that occur at the times when a man is sufficiently unsettled to have an opportunity for personal growth. We must always see our own feelings of uneasiness as being our chance for making the growth choice rather than the fear choice. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Alan Rocke's Image and Reality does so many things vividly and convincingly: it shows how visual images led chemistry step by step to the reality of the microscopic world; how simple portrayals of the logic of substitution and combination were reified; brings to our attention the imaginative, neglected work of Williamson and Kopp; and takes a critical look at Kekule's daydream. And it beautifully delineates the essential place the imagination has in science. A rewarding, lively picture of chemistry in formation. ~ Roald Hoffmann

Only pains of life too intense to be borne could lead a man to forgo all response, to give up completely the joy of living as other men live. (153) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

I believe that answers your questions," Sheriff Heath said, returning to his seat.
A brawny Italian man in the back of the room said, "No, sir, I didn't get an answer to my question about marriage proposals."
I jumped up before Sheriff Heath could. These reporters needed to see that I could speak for myself. "The presence or absence of suitors in the lives of the Kopp sisters has no bearing on this matter," I told them, "and I see no men here today who would stand a chance with any one of us. ~ Amy Stewart

I often hear from new graduates that it's better to wait until you have more experience ... But I'm a big believer in the power of inexperience ... The world needs you before you stop asking naive questions and while you have the time to understand the true nature of the complex problems we face and take them on. ~ Wendy Kopp

You will find it will almost always be more comfortable to sit on the sidelines and critique the builders from afar. But at the end of the day, the people who make a difference, the people who shape history, are not the haters. ~ Wendy Kopp

Then I thought about the little effort I'd made that day, to get to this beach and eat breakfast. It was great effort, actually. And for some of us, that is what recovery from addiction takes. Little, great, conscious efforts. ~ Shannon Kopp

Mindsets, skills and leadership, experience and access, and critical consciousness - we need all four of these things for our students to be the leaders, people and citizens we want them to be. ~ Wendy Kopp

The mission that unites all of the programs of the Teach For All global network is that of cultivating the leadership capacity critical to ultimately ensuring educational opportunity for all. ~ Wendy Kopp

So many stories lived behind my eyes. I carried the people I hurt, the lies I told, my sick relationship with food, wherever I went. My mind was rarely grounded in the moment. My past was heavy and constant; my thoughts wouldn't leave me alone. But when I was with the shelter dogs, I didn't have anything to hide. Sometimes what existed behind my eyes fell away. I wasn't bulimic or unlovable or fat or a liar. I was a part of life again. I was an observer, and to more than just the dark cyclical patterns of the mind - here was the strong, sturdy presence of another - the breath moving in and out of Angel's chest, the beating of her heart, the force of life moving through her and through me. ~ Shannon Kopp

There's no how-to guide for how to change the world. But it's easy to get hung up by misconceptions about what it takes to make an impact. ~ Wendy Kopp

It's time to declare a cease-fire in the education arms race. We have far more to gain from collaborating to solve our common problems than competing for higher rankings. ~ Wendy Kopp

This wish to satisfy someone greater than the Self, to be found acceptable, to belong at last, is a struggle familiar to many psychotherapy patients. In their lives they waste themselves on wondering how they are doing, on trying to figure out the expectations of others so that they can become someone in the eyes of others. They try to be practical, to be reasonable, to figure it all out in their heads. It is as though if only they could get the words straight in their heads, if only they could find the correct formula, then everything else in their lives would be magically straightened out. They are sure there is a right way to do things, though they have not yet found it. Someone in authority must know ... It is as thought if it were discovered that two and two really did not equal four (but five), then at that moment all over the world every machine would stop operating, all of the lights would go out. (110) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

If I reveal myself without worrying about how others will respond, then some will care, though others may not. But who can love me, if no one knows me? I must risk it, or live alone. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Often things are as bad as they seem. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Standardised tests cannot capture all, but on the other hand, students who are not capable of doing well on standardised tests are not well-equipped to thrive in today's world and so it's important for teachers to ensure that students gain the foundation necessary to meet the baseline educational standards these tests represent. ~ Wendy Kopp

While I started out with a vague understanding that diversity would be important, my own observations have led me to realize that achieving greater levels of diversity is in fact vital to our long-term success. ~ Wendy Kopp

I realized about a month ago that there's a last time everyone skips across a street. And that most people I know have already skipped for the last time and don't know it.

From here on out it will always be walking or running, growing older and buying things at the store or seeing friends or going to work, but never again will life impel them to skip. When I thought of this, the tragedy of it overwhelmed me so that I skipped all the way home from my friend's house.

Skipping is a strange thing. Because it means something. Like trains make the sound of leaving. Skipping is the motion of being totally free, childlike, abandoned of self and to self.

But I learned something else about skipping. You can't fake it. Or make it happen. It must be something that happens to you. (pp. 152-153) ~ Heather Harpham Kopp

Openness to my own dreams puts me in touch with the oldest, most human aspects of who I am; it helps me find my place in the community of man. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

We are working essentially to build a leadership force of folks who will, during their first two years of teaching, actually put their kids on a different trajectory - not just survive as a new teacher, but actually help close the achievement gap for their kids. ~ Wendy Kopp

Again and again I find that my own inner counselor, my secret dreaming self, is not only wise and helpful but usually amusing as well. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

All around the world, we send our top talent into finance, technology, medicine and law - everywhere but towards expanding opportunity for our most marginalized children. ~ Wendy Kopp

Every time a child's promise is cut short by their legal status, our country wastes precious resources and loses talent we need. ~ Wendy Kopp

If we're going to see sustainable results from all the other investments we're making in education, we need to build leadership capacity in each and every country. ~ Wendy Kopp

Our experience at Teach For America has been that the more people understand educational inequity, the more they want to do something about it. ~ Wendy Kopp

When a patient says he feels stuck and confused, and through good intentions he struggles to become loose and clear, he only remains chronically trapped in the mire of his own stubbornness. If instead he will go with where he is, only then is there hope. If he will let himself get deeply into the experience of being stuck, only then will he reclaim that part of himself that is holding him. Only if he will give up trying to control his thinking, and let himself sink into his confusion, only then will things become clear. (64) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

In the long run, we need to build a leadership force of people. We have a whole strategy around not only providing folks with the foundational experience during their two years with us, but also then accelerating their leadership in ways that is strategic for the broader education reform movement. ~ Wendy Kopp

Charter laws do something really important. They give educators the freedom and flexibility that they need to attain results. But we also have to invest a lot in the leadership pipeline to take advantage of that freedom and flexibility. ~ Wendy Kopp

Joy sat in my throat like an egg resting on a spoon, quiet and fragile, but real. ~ Shannon Kopp

As a white woman with a privileged education, I'm keenly aware that I founded an organization that can only realize its goal if it enlists many more leaders who share the backgrounds of the students and families we work with. ~ Wendy Kopp

We aspire to be equal opportunity, but all across the country where a student is born, their race, their class affect where they end up. ~ Wendy Kopp

We all live in a tragicomic situation, a life that is in part absurd simply because it is not of our own making. We are born into a disordered world, into a family we did not choose, into circumstances we would have had somewhat improved, and we are even called by a name we did not select. (40) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

People are attracted to teaching because they want to make a real impact. The teachers who are making the greatest difference go far beyond meeting standardised test measures. They aspire to truly level the playing field for their students, which means inspiring a love of learning, fostering the highest levels of critical thinking, building perseverance in working towards academic excellence, and so on. ~ Wendy Kopp

On average, our corps members stay in the classroom for eight years. But again, given the systemic nature of educational inequity, we know it is vital that some of our alumni take their experience outside the classroom. ~ Wendy Kopp

Effective teacher support in my mind is the same thing as effective management. Our teachers need strong management, just like anyone in any profession. ~ Wendy Kopp

I have not seen that standardised tests make the profession less attractive, though some principals respond to them in a way that drives the best teachers out of their schools (by over-emphasising test prep in the school curriculum for example). On the other hand, great teachers want benchmarks to measure progress and tests can help with that. ~ Wendy Kopp

The U.S. has a long history of walking up to the precipice of rigor and then walking away. As voters, let's support leaders who were courageous enough to make the hard decisions necessary to move our system forward. And as parents, let's put our faith in our educators, our children and tests that hold them to their highest potential. ~ Wendy Kopp

It's possible to train great people, but a person with great training who doesn't have certain characteristics is only going to go so far. ~ Wendy Kopp

You can't get there from here, and besides there's no place else to go. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Fostering the leadership necessary for transformational outcomes in education is hard work, and in countries around the world, there is a constant search for easier solutions. ~ Wendy Kopp

The idea that computers can ever replace teachers and schools reveals a deep lack of understanding about the role leadership plays in student success. ~ Wendy Kopp

Of course, one other hypothetical alternative would have been for the child to decide that since she was fine the way she was, there must have been something terribly wrong with her parents. But children need at least the continuing hope that their parents may come to love them. To decide that these crazy parents will never love her, no matter what she does, no matter whom she becomes, would leave a child buried in a depth of despair in which she would surely suffocate and die. (86) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

We collaborate with other countries on issues like public health and climate change because we understand these issues affect our collective welfare. ~ Wendy Kopp

Few things are more important to our country's future than recruiting and keeping great teachers in our schools. ~ Wendy Kopp

Sheldon Kopp, the author and psychologist, wrote, There are no great men. If you have a hero, look again: you have diminished yourself in some way. ~ Jim Bouton

Our laws guarantee all students the right to a K-12 education, regardless of their immigration status. ~ Wendy Kopp

In the long run we get no more than we have been willing to risk giving. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Teach for America recruits top recent college grads, young professionals, people we believe are the U.S.'s most promising future leaders, and asks them to commit two years to teach in high-need urban and rural communities. ~ Wendy Kopp

Kids in urban and rural areas face so many challenges, and they show up at schools that don't have the extra capacity or extra resources to meet their needs. ~ Wendy Kopp

Where educational deprivation exists, it breeds conflict and enables repression. ~ Wendy Kopp

It's easier to poke holes in an idea than think of ways to fill them. And it's easier to focus on the 100 reasons you shouldn't do something rather than the one reason you should. ~ Wendy Kopp

For a long time now I have trusted my dreaming self as wiser than that waking self whose head is cluttered with reason and practicalities, so busy trying to control things that he sometimes forgets that the heart has reasons that reason does not know. When I dream, I never forget to trust myself. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

He may only get to keep that which he is willing to let go of. ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

I'm happy to admit that I'm a hopeless optimist. ~ Wendy Kopp

The most insidious of the premature responsibilities that may be foisted onto some children is the expectation that the child is somehow supposed to take care of his parents, rather than the other way around. Parents who were themselves raised with too little attention given to their own early feelings, if they have not worked out the resulting emotional problems in subsequent years, often look forward to having children of their own so that the children will make them happy. (81) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

Should he start out on a psychotherapeutic pilgrimage, he sets out on an adventure in narration. The principle of explanation consists of getting the story told - somehow, anyhow - in order to discover how it begins. (21) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

I remember a group therapy session when one of the patients was reluctantly turning his corner. He would accept it, he said, but he wouldn't like the idea of having to solve problems every day for the rest of his life. My co-therapist told him that it was not required that he like it. She shared her own displeasure, saying: 'I remember that when I first discovered what life was like, I was furious. I guess I'm still kind of mad sometimes.' (135) ~ Sheldon B. Kopp

We look for people who demonstrate perseverance in the face of challenges, the ability to influence and motivate others - people who want to work relentlessly to ensure that kids who are facing the challenges of poverty have an excellent education. ~ Wendy Kopp

Research shows that whether you are low-income or not, mindset is a bigger predictor of success than academic skills, and how students gain great academic skills and persevere in the face of challenges. ~ Wendy Kopp

People are everything in education, just as in the corporate world. ~ Wendy Kopp

Cultivating more leaders who reflect our heterogeneous society depends on universities' transparent use of race as one of many factors in an admissions process that is accessible to all. ~ Wendy Kopp

We believe strongly in transparency and accountability, which is why Teach For America encourages rigorous independent evaluations of our program. Our mission is too important to operate in any other way. ~ Wendy Kopp